Greetings and happy spring hopefully everyone had a great and safe Easter!
Wow where to begin! It has been a very busy beginning to the year so far, from departments all over the state responding to flooding incidents. Now we are responding to severe weather calls, on top of our everyday runs from the simple EMS to complex fire scenes. Always watch everyone’s back while on any of these calls. We can’t help our citizens if we get hurt ourselves.
Convention 2019 is concluded and it was a great turnout for the Friday mixer and Saturday’s formal banquet. I want to thank all the departments that were represented both at the banquet and the firefighter games. Also a big thank you to all the vendors that attended as well. If you couldn’t make it this year, mark your calendars now for the 2020 convention in its 66th year will be held in District 11s backyard as we once again return to Kearney, Missouri. The event planning committee that I’ve talked to are getting a lot of things getting lined up to make this a huge event. I will provide details as they get released.
As we approach summer there’s a steady stream of new firefighters completing Firefighter I & II academy’s across the state; Warrensburg, Blue River Community College, Dearborn Area Fire District, Fort Osage Career Center, Kansas City Fire Academy, Kearney Fire Department., Hillyard Technical, Excelsior Springs and Cass County Career Centers are some of the schools I know of, that have graduated students that have tested with the fire marshal’s office for our field.
On March 30, 2019, Second VP and myself attended the open houses of both Alma Fire and Odessa Fire. Both events were great. Thank you for your hospitality. Both events were family oriented and gave station and truck tours to patrons and answered questions the community had. Alma even did an auto excitation demo, which was moved indoors due to the weather, so their citizens could see firsthand what happens during an extraction. I would personally like to thank Chief Campbell with Odessa Fire and Chief Buford and Scott Olson with Alma Fire for the invited to attend.
Things are gearing up and in full swing for preparation of the Missouri State Fair Fire Department. Hopefully those that wanted to come experience it got your applications in by the deadline. It should be another great year of events training and making new friends. I can’t wait to see how the ladies auxiliary will spoil the crews this year in the kitchen again like every year. They do a fantastic job.
I would like to extend a big thank you and congratulations to Steve Ashbridge for his accomplishments and retirement after almost 19 years with Warrensburg Fire Department, where he retired as the training officer. He over saw the fire recruit program and daily company trainings. I’ve personally served with him as instructor and evaluator for numerous classes. He’s done a great job teaching and molding cadets into being professional and caring firefighters that they are today. He’s full of knowledge and compassion of the job and will be missed. The Entire Firefighter Association of Missouri and Directors from District 4 and myself personally wish you a happy great retirement sir.
FFAM
